Content

This unit addresses the subject of poverty in the contemporary world, and introduces students to anthropological perspectives on the cross-cultural and local dimensions of this complex social and economic issue. According to the World Health Organization poverty can be understood as the most powerful and dangerous disease in the world today. Its presence cannot be dissociated from global epidemics such as HIV/AIDS or from violence including ethnic and racial as well as gender violence. The alleviation of poverty remains the key problem for global action and human development.

In this unit, students learn about the ways in which anthropologists analyse poverty and how they apply this knowledge critically towards effective remedial action in the global environment. In particular, the unit emphasizes the distinctive approaches that anthropologists bring to this field of study, and how these perspectives both complement diverge from other approaches (e.g., development studies, aid intervention, activism).

Topics include the culture of poverty, the history of the concept of poverty, the causes of poverty and also its effects. Students will explore how anthropologists engage with global organisations such as the WHO, the UN and other non-government organisations committed to development and the eradication of poverty. The global development industry is examined critically as an aspect of contemporary capitalism and world trade that has generated certain discourses such as relative deprivation, sustainable development and the Human Development Index in its attempts to understand poverty as a global phenomenon consisting of local and varied instances.

Assessment

Short Essay (40%) Research Essay (60%)

Unit Fee Information

Student Contribution Rate*

Student Contribution Rate**

Fee rate - Domestic Students

Fee rate - International students

$769

$769

$2250

$2900

* Rate for all CSP students, except for those who commenced Education and Nursing units pre 2010** Rate for CSP students who commenced Education and Nursing units pre 2010Please note: Unit fees listed do not apply to Deakin Prime students.